little moments

On Friday after work, we had picnic in our backyard. There's nothing like lying on the grass under a big blue sky. We listened to Angus and Julia Stone's 'Mango Tree', ate an entire packet of corn chips and laughed the afternoon away.

The Wedding Files: 66 days

66 days, or 9 weeks and 3 days, or 2 months and 5 days, or 1584 hours until we are getting married.

Here's my new favourite photo of my future husband and I, to celebrate the countdown!

Photo credit: Jess Greenwood

Ending August

We've just finished a very busy, very crazy month. Our little blog has been kinda quiet, but not because life has been dull. There's been lots of work meetings, a bit of travel, countless training presentations, pre-marriage counselling sessions, a wedding, birthday parties, decking out Casa del Smurf, family dinners, wedding ring shopping, coffee dates, gift registry set up and waay too much time spent in traffic. Life has been FULL.

But we managed to sneak in a lunch date last week and finally visited Jam Jar. Yay!

The outdoor courtyard is hidden from view on the street, and decked out with cool artwork from local artists. It feels a little bit like a Melbourne alleyway cafe! I had a yummy chicken and chorizo gumbo and Will enjoyed potato pancakes. The servings were a little on the small side, and neither of us really liked the music choice, but aside from that, it's a pretty cool little West End cafe.

And here's to a *fingers crossed* quieter, calmer September!

The Wedding Files: Blacker and Val

We were so honoured to witness and celebrate our dear friends' marriage on Saturday. Blacker and Val are one of our favourite couples and it was so special to stand under those big old fig trees and hear them say their vows. Val was absolutely radiant and hearing Blacker share why he wanted to marry her made me cry. And Groomsman #4, what a handsome man.

And that renegade chicken? I will be asking Val where she hired him from and seeing if we can sneak some feathered friends into the church come Nov 19.

I'm joking, of course. Apparently llamas, not chickens, are where it's at. Oh world of weddings, you are a crazy, crazy place.

A little bit of last week.

These things make me happy:

Friday nights at the Smurf House. Freshly picked flowers from our garden and lemon tarts. Artwork from our engagement party. Honeymoon planning.

Picniking

We made the most of our Ekka Show Day with yet another picnic (seriously, we're getting good at these!) at Cedar Creek. What can beat the great outdoors, a hunk of brie and the love of your life?

We were merrily enjoying the tranquility, guzzling down our Honest Quenchers, when all of a sudden, a greedy kookaburra landed in our picnic fare and tried his luck at stealing our food. The cheeky birdy left his beak-print in the brie, but otherwise left empty-handed (empty-beaked?).

Of course, we weren't going to give up any of our yummy treats, so we set up a tripod to protect the goods. Low and behold, Mr Kookaburra tried again. I squealed and covered my eyes, only to open them seconds later and see Will with a large kookaburra in his hands!! The bottom centre photo shows Will re-enacting the catch - I was too slow to capture it the first time round. Needless to say, the tripod turned into a picnic-protecting tee-pee and after waiting in the trees for ages, Mr Kookaburra finally gave up.




After lunch, Will smashed up wood and I did some wedding-related stitching. We explored the creek bed, reminisced about the proposal and made the most of my new Camera+ app.




The day finished with Thai takeaway back at the Blue House. We began our pre-marriage counselling DVDs, which took our minds off all the wedding planning and set our focus on what's most important - our marriage. And when the clock struck 8 o'clock, Will pulled me off the couch, raced up the street and we watched red and green and pink and gold explosions fill the sky and illuminate the city.

A perfect day.

97 days..

... until I'll be coming home to this house and this man - yippee!!